From January until May Nautilus will be collaborating in a diving science research project with the University of Winchester (UK) and funded by the PADI Foundation. The research is looking at the effect of deep diving (30-40m) on tests of memory. During this four month period we are looking for volunteers to take part in the project which consists of completing 2 dives and a short pool session with an instructor. The memory tests will take less than 10 minutes on each dive and the remaining time underwater can be spent fun diving. To compensate volunteers for taking part both dives will be FREE OF CHARGE. The dives can also be accredited as 2 dives towards a PADI Deep Diver Speciality course. Volunteers wishing to complete their Deep Diver will then be offered a discounted rate to complete any remaining dives and theory for the speciality. Divers must be at least Advanced Open Water (or equivalent) to take part in the research. Interested divers can sign up by contacting us at our email address (nautilus@vanuatu.com.vu). If you require more information on the project itself please email Dr Malcolm Hobbs at emailmalc@hotmail.com.

After we got our open water ticket (see us celebrating in pic), we enjoyed a number of great dives including the Konada Wreck, where we discovered the loo, the wheelhouse and stopped for a cuppa tea on the wheelhouse roof.

We enjoyed our diving so much, we returned to Vanuatu the following year and went on more than 10 dives with our friends at Nautilus (with our instructors Lucy, Drew and the always helpful captain Freddy – see pics).

How can you beat two beautiful dives with 20 metre + visibility with homemade cakes in between (see pic of instructor Lucy and friend below).

Some of the highlights of our dives include: scaling the wall and going under the staghorn at Twin Bommies; the phenomenal wrecks of Semle Federsen, Star of Russia and Konanda; and the amazing viz and colours of the tropical reefs and sea life.
We’ve already booked our third trip in less than 2 years and our mission this trip is to do a night dive to see the turtles!

Soon after arriving in Port Vila we made our way down to Nautilus Watersports, being keen divers from Sydney and having just dived the Coolidge we wanted to see some reefs, we found the staff very helpful and were able to do all the dives that we requested including the Tasman a plane wreck and two other wrecks as well, the reefs were just amazing with heaps of fish and other critters.

After doing the Tasman plane wreck dive we decided to snorkel back to the dive shop, on the way we saw a seahorse and a really strange looking worm on the wall just in front of the jetty of the dive shop. I have put together some photo’s to view as this is a photographers paradise. With so much to see it’s great to know that the staff are safety conscious and very knowledgeable of the local area.

Regards Grant and Suzi (Sydney, Australia – 30th Dec 2008)

The other night, a number of us went for a dive at the Twin Bommies.

Twin Bommies is an excellent dive site for both advanced and novice divers. The mooring line leads divers to an insensitive bottom where they can adjust their buoyancy and acclimate to their surroundings. Novices will enjoy circling the Bommies that teem with diverse aquatic life. There is always a good chance of finding a cuttlefish or a lion fish hiding near the Bommies, and the clown fish can always be seen nearby.

Experienced divers have the option of following the wall across form the Bommies. Table coral, nudiebranchs, clown fish, and lots of other interesting stuff can be seen along the wall.

I’ve done a number of dives at this site, and have become familiar with the various points of interest here. I was excited to do a night dive (it had been too long since my last), but I had expected to see essentially the same site, just darker. Generally I’m not happy to be wrong, but I was pleased to be wrong about this dive.

We arrived at Bommies just as the sun was beginning to set. The full moon hung low in the sky, and was clearly visible before the sun had finished setting. These were perfect conditions for a night dive; full moon, calm waters, and excellent visibility.

My buddies for this dive (Gemma and Josh) and I geared up and splashed down. The sun was barely peeking over the horizon as we made our descent. Our first destination would be the wall. This was going to be interesting; I was breaking in a brand new torch and I was going to try to take photos while I juggled the light back and forth in my hands.

The clown fish were just bedding down for the night, nestled into their anemone when came upon them. They seemed a bit sleepy and a tad bit surprised to be entertaining guests after dark.

Feather stars; they almost look like alien creatures that are slowly and patiently invading the Earth, ocean first. It was great to watch them curl up and hide as I shined my torch on them. I wasn’t really able to light the shot, line it up, and take it very quickly, so it was mostly closed by the time I snapped this.

Once we’d finished up at the wall, it was on to the Bommies.

The Spanish dancers were out in abundance tonight. I was very happy for the chance to snap a few photos to show everyone back home, as we only have American dancers to photograph.

As we puttered around the Bommies, I could see Gemma make a sharp turn off in a different direction. She had spotted one of the turtles that sleeps near the Bommies. It’s always amazing seeing a turtle, no matter how many times you’ve spotted one before. I’m always taken with their grace underwater, especially considering their awkward shape. This guy was much too far for me to hope to photograph, so I had to content myself with following (really, trying to keep up with)him.

At this point I was starting to run a bit low on air, so I signaled my buddies that I’d be heading back to the surface. Just as I turned away to make my way closer to the mooring line, I saw this parrot fish nestled in for the night.

Awesome dive.

Greg: Padi Instructor @ Nautilus

Home: U.S.A

www.Nautilus.com.vu

What can we say; the weather and water conditions have been just spectacular, blue skies and turquoise waters, with the water temperature creeping up to 28+ degrees and the vis being around 15 to 20 mtrs what more could you ask for. The Semle as always was awesome with vis of 35 to 40 mtrs. With the conditions being so great this week we have ventured out to the Cathedral twice and were visited buy a large school of Maori Wrasse, with great Grand Dad leading the group.

Lots of fun also had on board Cowrie with dive enjoying the surface interval jumping of the top of the dive boat, great photo take by Steve.

We would like to congratulate Ali for completing his PADI Advanced course and also Pontus and Bill for completing their Padi Open Water Course. We would also like to thank Cath & Grant who have been back for their 3^rd trip this year and to Rob & Judy for their 2^nd trip with both couples completing in excess of 20 dives.

Happy Diving.

www.nautilus.com.vu

Even though we have had rain most of the week the visibility has been great with 30+ meters, water temperature is starting to creep, sitting around 26 to 27 degrees.

The marine life has been in abundance, Cuttlefish, Turtles and also a sighting of Dorothy our friendly Dugong yesterday and how lucky were the dives, all were Discover Scuba Dives of the P & O Cruise boat in port for the day, it really is being in the right please at the right time.

We would like to thank Sue and Tony for coming back and diving with us again this year and for the mammoth amount of dives they completed.

Come on over to Nautilus Watersports for a Great Vanuatu Diving Experience

Nautilus Watersports. Port Vila. Vanuatu

diving@vanuatu.com.vu

Saturday 9 August

We’ve had a bit of a “Wreck Special” going on over the last few days and done some superb dives on all our wrecks ! After a great dive on the Semle Federsen, eight Devil Rays cruised with the group and joined them in the shallows. Konanda Wreck, (the little boat) had everyone gasping with the 20m+ visibility (a rarity) and as usual the Star of Russia was up to scratch with a large shoal of Trevally and Big Mouth Mackerel. BUT .. you always should leave the best till last … Wednesday morning after diving the Tasman, the group were chilling out on Cowrie and chilling out on the surface with them were 3 dugongs. Our skipper Freddie reckons that the biggest one must have been almost 4m long and only about 1m away from the boat !!

Night dive on Tuesday at Twin Bommies this little batfish was hanging off the wall at 20m – what a stunner, and as always we all saw the sleeping Green & Hawksbill Turtles ! Thanks to all divers this week – but especially Adam, Sara, David & Paula – we’ve had lots of fun with you guys this week, hope to see you all again.

Another busy week for Open Water courses – well done to all the guys that completed – Vincent, Zeak, Brent, Kirsty, Alexis and Erin. Congrats to Duane who has also managed to fit in an Advanced course before setting sail to Fiji.

www.nautilus.com.vu

Diving@vanuatu.com.vu

Saturday 2 August

It’s been a manic week for Open Water & Scuba Diver courses – well done to all the guys that completed this week – Jodie, Julian, James and Miranda who was our first e-learning student (for all wanna-be scuba divers this is definitely the way to go !!)

Thanks for all that joined us on Cowrie for a great weeks diving, especially Diane, Lara, Glen & John – hope you enjoyed the variety of dives and thanks for putting up with the changeable weather this week !!

We’ve had some good sightings throughout the week – from the mighty to the tiny ! Napoleon Wrasse cruising passed Open Water students at Twin Bommies and a Leafy Scorpion fish on the wall at Cathedral. The Cathedral was a spectacular dive, visibility was at least 25m and with no current and a huge shoal of Unicorn fish, everyone had a great time.

New Diving Addicts this week = 17. Welcome to our underwater world.

www.nautilus.com.vu
diving@vanuatu.com.vu

A few highlights over the past few days include seeing Devil Rays at Twin Bommies and Pango Drift, and during the night dive on Wednesday, the whole group was thrilled to spot a Nautilus and a Slipper Lobster on Twins Wall. We seem to have gained a new navigation aid on Neville’s Surprise drift dive by way of a large cuttlefish that’s been spotted the last three dives in the same spot ! Visibility on the Semle Federsen Wreck reached new highs on Thursday – we could see the sand at 50m+ from about 8m down the mooring line.

Thanks to all that have dived with us this week, especially Alan and Kirsty who have clocked up almost 25 dives between them. Also, Roger who was desperate to dive on the Tasman, and we finally managed to drop him down onto the Flying Boat on Friday. Best of luck for your diving on the Coolidge next week, and enjoy your 60m dive on your 60th birthday – 1m for every year, what a great way to celebrate !!

Congratulations to Colin who completed his Advanced Open Water on Monday. This week sees farewell to Jackie who has spent the last few weeks with us completing Open Water through to Rescue and logged over 60 dives.

New Diving Addicts this week = 40 Welcome to our underwater world.

Email: Diving@vanuatu.com.vu

Web: www.nautilus

I have just spent a fantastic week diving with Nautilus. All the staff were helpful and friendly and made diving a fun and pleasurable experience. All the dives were different, I went out to Reef, Drop Off and Wrecks.
The water was warm, the visibility 30 to 40 mtrs and there was an abundant of fish life. The highlight for me was seeing a Mantaray in full flight and being able to take some awesome photo’s. There are a couple of my favorite shots.
Port Vila is a great place to dive and Nautilus will make your stay a memorable one.

Roger – Adelaide – Australia

Nautilus would like to wish Roger a happy 60^th birthday for Wednesday 30^th July.

Email: Diving@vanuatu.com.vu

Web: www.nautilus